USB STICK MAKES EASY AUTOMATIC BACKUPS TO DVD / CD
There's really no excuse for not backing up your computer these
days. Used to be that making a backup was a fairly complex task. But
today's backup offerings makes it pretty much a no-brainer. In the
recent months, I've written about several of the newest backup
methods and products that make backing up a breeze. I'd like to add
one more I recently discovered that adds an interesting twist to the
job.
Normally, most backups are made to another hard drive. External hard
drives are fairly inexpensive, easy to connect, fast and easy to
detach and store in a safe location. Backing up hard drive data to
CD and DVD discs is another viable alternative but in the past has
proven to be not as popular. That's because the larger capacity hard
drives typically require more than one disc to complete the job and
keeping track of multiple discs during the process can be a bit
confusing. However the new DVD Transformer from Clickfree makes the
entire backup operation to optical media a snap.
When you are ready to backup your computer's hard drive, all you
need is a stack of writable CD or DVD discs and the DVD Transformer
which looks exactly like one of those popular flash drive sticks.
Just plug the DVD Transformer into any available USB port and that's
just about everything you have to do. The DVD Transformer's built-in
software launches and begins to look at every kind of data file on
your hard drive. After that, you are presented with a screen that
lets you choose everything, specific files or the kinds of files you
want to copy such as jpeg and mp3. From there, the backup process is
completely automatic.
Your computer's CD or DVD drive will automatically open. You just
insert the first optical disc, close the drive and the DVD
Transformer begins burning all of the files to that disc. If the
disc fills up, the drive will open or eject the burned disc and
prompt you to insert the next one. The screen will also display a
unique name and number of the ejected disc so that you can write
that information to the disc's label. This process continues until
all of the hard drive's data is completely backed up. At that point,
the DVD Transformer will display what was copied and end the task.
The last step is to simply remove the DVD Transformer from the USB
drive.
The DVD Transformer window will close and nothing from the DVD
Transformer will remain on the computer's hard drive. What you'll be
left with is a stack of CD or DVD discs that contain all of your
hard drive's data. It really doesn't get any easier than this.
The DVD Transformer works with both the Windows and Macintosh OS X
and sells for $39.99. Given the inexpensive costs of burnable DVDs
these days, backing up your precious data to optical media is pretty
much the cheapest way to make a backup. And with the DVD
Transformer, it's now pretty much the easiest way as well.
www.clickfree.com
| Craig Crossman is
a McClatchy-Tribune newspaper columnist writing about computers and
technology. He also hosts the nation's longest running nationally syndicated radio talk show on
computers and technology, Computer America, heard on both the Business TalkRadio
Network® and the Lifestyle TalkRadio Network®, weeknights at 10PM Eastern
time. Visit his website at http://www.computeramerica.com |
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